New cross-border threat? Calls offering cash for data

NEW DELHI: When in doubt, don’t call back. More so if you happen to be an Airtel subscriber and have a missed call from a +92 number. Cellphone major Bharti Airtel told TOI that many of its subscribers are receiving fraudulent calls — usually a missed call — presumably from across the border. “Callers often call back thinking 92 is a Tata Indicom number, overlooking the fact that +92 is Pakistan’s country code”, a company spokesperson said.

On returning the missed call, the person at the other end would pretend to be an Airtel staffer and inform the caller that he/she has won a lottery/award conducted by the company. The fraudster would then attempt to dupe the customer into sharing sensitive personal information about his/her voter ID, PAN, bank account and credit card data and demand a commission (usually DTH recharge vouchers) to receive the winnings. “We issued an advisory which is up on our website to protect all mobile/landline users from falling victim to these malicious activities. We believe it is best to avoid responding to suspicious missed calls from unknown numbers,” the spokesperson emphasized.

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submitted by Mr Ajith